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"419" Scam – Advance Fee / Fake Lottery Scam

The so-called "419" scam is a type of fraud dominated by criminals from Nigeria and other countries in Africa. Victims of the scam are promised a large amount of money, such as a lottery prize, inheritance, money sitting in some bank account, etc.

Victims never receive this non-existent fortune but are tricked into sending their money to the criminals, who remain anonymous. They hide their real identity and location by using fake names and fake postal addresses as well as communicating via anonymous free email accounts and mobile phones.

Keep in mind that scammers DO NOT use their real names when defrauding people.
The criminals either abuse names of real people or companies or invent names or addresses.
Any real people or companies mentioned below have NO CONNECTION to the scammers!

Read more about such scams here or in our 419 FAQ. Use the Scam-O-Matic to verify suspect emails.

Click here to report a problem with this page.

 

 

Some comments by the Scam-O-Matic about the following email:

Fraud email example:

From: "gando gando" <gando_6@hotmail.com>
Date: Fri, 28 Oct 2005 11:23:45 +0000
Subject: URGENT

TOP-SECRET
RE: REMITTANCE OF US$15,000,000:00

CONFIDENCIAL E-MAIL(rakeem700@hotmail.com.

Dear Friend.

I am the manager of bill and exchange at the foreign remittance department
African Developpement Bank .I am writing, following your address which i got
through international network information when i was searching for a sure
email contact because of the urgency of this transaction.And i hope of your
relaibility to champion this business opportunity with me.In my department
we discovered an abandoned sum of U.S$15.5m US dollars (FIFTHEN.FIVE MILLION
USD)
in an account that belongs to one of our foreign customer who died along
with his entire family in November 2003 in a plane crash.Since we got
information about his death, we have been expecting his next of kin to come
over and claim his money because we cannot release it unless somebody
applies for it as next of kin or relation to the deceased as indicated in
our banking guidlines and laws but unfortunately we learnt that all his
supposed next of kin or relation died alongside with him at the plane crash
leaving nobody behind for the claim. It is therefore upon this discovery
that I now decided to make this business proposal to you and release the
money to you as the next of kin or relation to the deceased for safety and
subsequent disbursement since nobody is coming for it and we don't want this
money to go into the bank treasury as unclaimed bill. The banking law and
guidline here stipulates that if such money remained unclaimed after five
years, the money will be transfered into the bank treasury as unclaimed
fund. The request of foreign as next of kin in this business is occassioned
by the fact that the customer was a foreigner and a Burkinabe cannot stand
as next of kin to a foreigner.
We agree that 30% of this money will be for you as a foreign partner, in
respect to the provision of a foreign account, 10% will be set aside for
expenses incured during the business and 60% would be for me. There after I
will visit your country for disbursement according to the percentages
indicated.Therefore, to enable the immediate transfer of this fund to you as
arranged, you must apply first to the bank as relation or next of kin of the
deceased indicating your bank name, your bank account number, your private
telephone and fax number for easy and effective communication and location
wherein the money will be remitted. Upon receipt of your reply, I will send
to you by fax or e-mail the text of the application. I will not fail to
bring to your notice that this transaction is hitch-free and that you should
not entertain any atom of fear as all required arrangements have been made
for the transfer. You should contact me immediately as soon as you receive
this letter for more explanations.

Yours faithfully

GANDO

_________________________________________________________________
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